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A Winter Forecast

I watch the mist of an autumn morning
creep across the fields, shrouding
the grey outline of the church
and leaving a scattering of dew.
In this moment I think of you
still chasing dreams
like a youthful robin tuning
up in preparation for the spring,
and me a wood pigeon with my loud
and mournful forecast of daily cloud.

Frank is our host and his theme for this Tuesday’s Poetics, frustration, disappointment or heartbreak, was inspired by a poem Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend’, which he has shared with us.

Frank asks whether one make a poem out of frustration, or go even further and make that poem such that, when it is read, the heartbreak feels as if it is all resolved in the reading without explicitly saying how?

Frank says that made him think of the Bee Gees’ song ‘Heartbreaker’ and he has shared a version by Dionne Warwick.

Our challenge is to write a poem that is vaguely inspired by the poem or the song. Whatever frustration or heartbreak we develop may have a resolution that is subtle, nonexistent or all over the place.

wonderful image, I presume, by your Hubby? it’s extremely atmospheric and simply gorgeous …. wow!
and I really like your poem –
the play of birds, and seasons, old to new, new for old, the cycling of transitions, and transformations … and how this also speaks of endings, beginnings, as well as the more “stodginess” (only in the poem, of course) idea of despair, of losing hope … but this is so tightly worded, so carefully phrased, that even the despairing narrator, still has that “sprinkling” sparkling dew of hope …. and that particular “dew” line is simply …. delicious!

I’m not very skilled at social commenting, so I will leave you with this. The image of the loud mournful wood pigeon, juxtaposed with the youthful robin really speaks to this old cranky bird. Any poem that can cause one to self-reflect is constructed well.

Wonderful poem. The photo is a keeper, by your husband? This too reminds me of the things I cannot do although there isn’t much I can’t still do. the photo puts me in mind of the movie, The Others. The bird images are outstanding.

Thanks Toni. Yes, the photo was taken by my husband. I wish he’d do more photography, he has a really good eye for it. The Others is one of my favourtie films and I used it a lot when I was still teaching.

There IS a melancholy at giving up things we used to do. I was somehow reminded of the wood duck decoy who had a place of honor in my home for years. He sat in all his glory atop a vintage pie safe, and I just know he enjoyed being a voyeur in my life. Perhaps it is so for the wood pigeon ….. I loved your words!

I love this, especially “you
still chasing dreams
like a youthful robin tuning
up in preparation for the spring,
and me a wood pigeon with my loud
and mournful forecast of daily cloud.” And the photo is gorgeous!

That bit of ache at the end, and the feeling that the wood pigeon knows about something the robin has overlooked – that gives it just the right bite of chill to remind the reader that winter comes whether you are ready or not.